With Harold Stewart, perpetrated the "Ern Malley Hoax", in which fabricated verse was submitted to a literary magazine, Angry Penguins, as the long-lost poetry of deceased auto mechanic Ernest "Ern" Malley. A special edition of the magazine appeared, as well as a volume of Malley's poetry, The Darkening Ecliptic. McAuley and Stewart revealed their hoax nine months later.